War in the Underground Empire

The War: Day 1

"This battle is immense!" I smiled at this, looking at the bloodstained fields watching men slaughter each other with such calmness I felt like I was someone else.

"Time to join the bloodshed." I said and leaped off the cliff I was standing on. The men around me froze when I landed surprised at the sudden appearance of a lone man with nothing but two revolvers and a blade sheathed on his back. Yes, I was something to fear. The moment didn't last though and I was instantly attacked.

I quickly took out my revolvers and shot the two nearest soldiers in the head. The others were careful advancing upon me with their shields. I whipped around and stretched my arm against the brigade of soldiers advancing upon me. The soldiers froze, they didn't know what I was gonna do, but their captain yelled at them to charge.

"Big mistake." I said and gave a smile, a massive blast of energy erupted from the palm of my hand.

The soldiers desperately tried to run, but even the quickest of them couldn't get away. I laughed at this these soldiers were fools. A voice behind me said, "Don't be reckless Rafael..." I turned around and gave a smile.

"Well, 'bout time you joined in on the fun, Shendo!" I couldn't help but laugh. A solder took this opportunity to attack me. I took out my sword and with a single swipe of my hand the soldier lay dead at my feet. Shendo simply gave a small smile.

"Fast as ever, Rafael, come lets join the other High Honors on the field, yes?" With that said he turned and erupted into blue fire and vanished. He always was dramatic. More men to fight! The idea oddly excited me. I always fought it out in the arena but this was different this was, war. My shadow came to life and appeared in front of me.

"Send word back to base, we need more reinforcements." My shadow simply nodded and vanished. A few minutes later it returned, and enveloped around me. This was me in my most powerful form. like a shadow (I mean this literally) I went to join the other High Honors in battle... war was such a complicated thing...

Hows that for a start, eh guys? This about a war against the other clans.

------------------------------
Intelligence Report (Story Info)

The White Blood has attacked the city of Gurth, and we have come to help protect it. But the other clans have also started to attack the other cities.

White Blood (clan Information)
The White Blood are usually at peace with Zork and have never attacked the other cities. But people change... clans change... Their soldiers seem to be almost un-killable, when ever you slash at them their blood will come out then turn white and seep back in, and heal the soldier. The only way to kill these things is to chop off the head or literally obliterate every single cell in their body. The White Blood are an intriguing clan.

The Blackguard (clan information)

The Blackguard have attacked the city of Frostham, which is ironic due to their coldness in war. And our forces are scattered we are barely holding the lines in Gurth but Frostham is another ordeal entirely. The Blackguard have summoned up the worst creatures you can imagine upon Frostham. But this is not like them, another force is at work, I know it. Our forces in Frostham have said they have seen soldiers of the Blackguard start going mad, yelling "No, no! I won't do it" and then... suddenly go limp. Also their fearless Dark Lord, Johnny Cancer is no where to be seen in the battle...

Feel free to continue the story after this one! I'll be putting this up on the other forum sections later for other people to join in!

Continued...

The battle was over, Gurth was safe. But what of Frostham? We had to get there as quickly as possible. I looked around the bloodstained fields seeing barely any forces of The Guard alive at all. I was glad to see that the other High honors had survived the battle. But all these dead soldiers... something erupted behind me. and I saw Shendo appear next to me, he had a small expression on his face.

"All this death, Rafael and at what cost?" He gave a sigh. I simply nodded at this.

Shendo was the mighty leader of The Guard and a formidable foe on the battlefield he was second to none when it came to battling. His armor was heavy built magically enchanted to take no damage from most attacks, the runes on his armor represented the power that emanated from him. He could simply utter a word and you would a pile of ashes, he truly was something to fear.

"Ahh!"

"What the..?" Me and Shendo turned to see a remaining White Blood running in our direction. Me and Shendo barely even moved. The man stopped and looked at both of us seeing that I was barely armored, he took out a gun and shot at me. I quickly turned into a shadow and the bullet went right through me it felt like nothing I didn't feel any pain nor did I even react. The soldier kept shooting and shooting until his gun was finally empty. I stretched my arm out and pointed my palm at him.

"Done? Well then let's finish this." I stretched my arm out and a surge dark energy surged from the palm my hand instantly incinerating the helpless White Blood soldier.

"So much death, in war there is but there is no good war and there is no bad peace." I turned and nodded at Shendo, before vanishing into a shadow and returned to camp to we had to get to Frostham...

Continued...

The cold breeze blew us around like rag dolls, I could barely keep myself from flying off into the unknown. Even before the grues invaded most of the land around Frostham the place was still a death trap. Then I saw, we all saw it the city of Frostham finally emerged above the horizon, but it wasn't a welcoming sight. The Blackguard had gotten through the gates and were destroying the city, this just proved that this wasn't like them. The Blackguard may have filled with cutthroats, thieves, and gamblers but they never attacked the civilians during an attack on a city.

"Go,go! All soldiers available head into the city and protect the innocent!" Shendo barked.

Tolten led the band of soldiers into the city, Tolten was a proud warrior. Almost none could defeat him in battle when it came to the ways of war he was someone to look for. The armor he wore was immense, bulking with might and steel designed to deflect nearly any attack, Tolten's armor was an envy to all who gazed upon it. Though as big as the armor was he could move surprisingly fast, it was built for the perfect warrior, and Tolten was that warrior.

I hurried into the fray taking out my revolvers and shooting at any Blackguard member who I saw. Honestly I felt a little bad, as evil as The Blackguard are I bore a respect for them.

"Ooh, a High Honor of The Guard... you'll make a scrumptious meal!" A Soul Eater pounced at me with amazing speed I could barely dodge the attack. The sight of the Soul Eater was not a sight for normal soldier to look upon, for if you were not used to the ways of war you would've thrown up at the mere stench this monster bore off.

"Gah! Why did your Vermin Lord make such wretched creatures?" I whipped my revolver and shot the Soul Eater right between the eyes. He went limp. Then I saw something behind me move. I whipped my head to see a Red Wizard behind me wearing a lab coat and giving off an insane smile.

"El Satanno." I murmured. This man was the local drunken mad scientist of The Blackguard.

"Pleasure to meet you, sir!" He replied giving a low bow, this man was mad. I took advantage of this and pointed my revolver and fired it at him. The bullet went straight at him and bounced off of a force field around the mad scientist.

"Nice try, tsk, tsk, this will never do..." he said as he started fiddling with a gauntlet on his arm filled with buttons, which I could never have understood. But then suddenly Satanno stopped and looked around, then was suddenly blasted away into a wall that was still standing.

"Ow... that hurt, it seems The Guard has their own Arcanist? Hm, I thought they all died out, the only one left was part of The Blackguard... no he left us to train some... pupil of his."

"Rafael, I'll take care of this mad man." A voice said and Jackerson appeared.

"About time you came to join in the fun!" I said with a laugh.

"Go, I'll take care of Satanno!"

I nodded at him and vanished into a shadow. I could vaguely hear Satanno yelling, "A real live Shadow Warrior! I thought they were.." I couldn't hear the rest. Then I felt the earth shake, instantly bouncing me out of my shadow. Jackerson was fighting it out with El Satanno, I could hear Satanno again saying,"Hm, now it's come back he left to train you!"

I couldn't help but listen more, but I had to go and help the others.

I came to join Tolten in battle he was locked in a fight between him and five Soul Eaters. I hurried to join him.

Tolten was seemed to be toying with the Soul Eaters simply dodging their attacks and simply hurling them away one by one. But they kept on coming and Tolten eventually went into full fledge battle mode. He sliced at the nearest Soul Eater instantly killing the monster. He turned around and gave a mighty kick to a unlucky Soul Eater sending him flying to somewhere. I just watched amused by the onslaught. Then I saw one of the Soul Eaters getting behind him... No!

"Tolten!" My shadow leaped at the Soul Eater and devoured him. When my shadow finally leaped off and join back with me all was left of the soul eater was a rotting corpse.

My shadow appeared before me, "You sicken me." And it simply frowned and joined with me again.

Something flashed and I found myself on the ground gasping for air. I looked up to see an old friend of mine the Dark Lord of the Blackguard, Johnny Cancer was looking at me with a dull expression.

"Hello again... long time no see, Rafael..." And the world went dark.

---------------------------------
"Oh, my god... go get someone he needs to be healed quickly! Rafael, lord?" The soldier eyes were wild with fear, he was obviously a new recruit. My eyes fluttered open I could vaguely make out the shapes around me... what was going on? Why didn't Johnny kill me?

I felt myself getting carried away. I was safe, but what of the battle? No, time to rest later to think...

Ugh, my head where am I? I looked around seeing that I was in a dimly lit room, what the...? How could that be? I was carried back to camp. I quickly got up and looked for my revolvers, they weren't in my coat, I touched my back my sword wasn't there either. What the heck was going on? A voice behind me spoke, a voice that I had heard before I was carried off to heal at camp.

"Johnny, long time no see..." I turned around slowly to find Johnny in a shaken state. This wasn't like the Chief Inquisitor of the Blackguard. He always held himself erect, even in the worst of cases his face never ever showed any emotion at all especially when it came to hunting down any enemies of the Blackguard.

"Rafael... it's been over a year since we've seen each other!" Johnny's voice seemed light, he was in a happy mood which seemed odd in the horrible state he was in. He gave a smile, and motioned for me to sit down next to him and a chair appeared. I sat down and looked at my old friend in the eye.

"What has happened to you, Cancer?" My shadow appeared next to me and looked at Johnny curiously and suddenly it wound up in fright. Odd, nothing ever scared my shadow it could never be killed. My shadow knew things even I didn't. Something was wrong with Johnny this definitely proved it.

"Nothing has happened old friend! Why what's wrong just 'cause I nearly killed you? You think I'm a dangerous man and can't be trusted?" Those were all the things that I was thinking.

"Johnny--" All of a sudden Johnny's body jerked.

"Ahh!" Johnny gave a guttural scream. "Get out of me! Get out, out!" He was tearing his clothes apart frantically trying to get whatever was inside him out.

"Johnny what is it?" My shadow appeared again and seemed worried about Johnny.

"Rafael, tell your shadow to get him out." He was shaking.

"Wha--"

"Do it!"

"Shadow take whatever is in Johnny out!" I was bewildered, what was gonna happen? My shadow went nearer to Johnny, Johnny desperately tried to keep himself still going from one way to another. My shadow cocked it's head curiously and slipped in Johnny's mouth. I simply wondered what my shadow was gonna do. What else was I to do? Johnny's eyes glowed yellow the color of the eyes of my shadow's. It turned from yellow to a bloody crimson red. Then Johnny's body went limp.

"Johnny?!" I looked into his eyes, they were completely white. Then a red fog seeped out of his mouth and shaped it's self into a man and looked at me.

"You will pay! You and your shadow!" It's voice sounded raspy and it seemed tripled, this thing was something not of this world. Then my shadow came out of Johnny and rejoined with me. The red spirit vanished after giving one last threat.

"I will find another host one you don't know! One that can't access the world of dreams and escape my grasp. He will be a powerful host one that I'm sure even you nor any in the land can defeat!"

I could only think of one person that this spirit was talking about. Myrtas, the powerful Emperor of The Old Guard. His power is immense he could take out whole armies by simply flicking pieces off a board. Then the spirit faded, but a thought occurred to me Myrtas hopefully could've been to powerful for this spirit to control, but he took over Johnny a man who's victims follow, as ghosts frightening demons only the most brave or insane of men to look at and laugh.

No, he might look for the lost wizard, Jax. He was the most powerful mage of the land he made Myrtas seem like a mere kitten compared to himself. But Jax had left the Old Guard everyone said that he had gotten old and insane and eventually got killed by a grue or by his own insanity. Others said that he simply left to look for prosperity and away from war, cold bloody war... I turned to Johnny.

Then Johnny started to slowly get up.

"Thank you Rafael. You saved my life now I can get the Blackguard to seize their attack on Frostham. The Guard and the Blackguard need to join forces, Rafael! The Old Guard have been corrupted and will attack all of Zork they have more than enough numbers for that."

I simply nodded at this. "You're welcome Johnny, I hope we can see each other again after this confused war ends." I smiled

Johnny simply grinned and replied,"Hm, next time we maybe enemies Rafael." He winked."Now time for you to wake up."

My eyes fluttered open. I looked around seeing that I was in my tent again. I saw the spot where Johnny had hit me from the battle. There was a long scar on my chest stitched up and mended by Jackerson, he was a fine a warrior mage but also a magnificent healer.

"Johnny.." I said under my breath.

I had to find him. Who was that red spirit that had taken over Johnny? I walked out of my tent to see Shendo. He had to know what I saw in my dream. Then it hit me, was the dream even real? The fact that really bothered me was that Johnny said that The Old Guard had been corrupted. But that spirit had only just left when Johnny told me that. It could only mean that there were more of these things. That red one must be the leader.

"Shendo, I need to tell you something..." And I told my surprising dream to Shendo...
------------------------------
Come on, guys! Make something up for the story and (of course) try and make it go with the story. Shendo you could continue it from here since I'm technically speaking to you in the story.

It wasn't a dream, Rafael, a saw a man standing over you, then you just ... disappeared, but I have a feeling that we should keep a watch on the old guard from what you tell me.


Tolten walks in, "guys, get out here.. NOW!" We rush, only to see at least 10 White Blood assassins killing our troops. "It's an ambush!" I yell. I see Jackerson surrounded by 3 of them, I yell, "You need help, Jack?" He lifts a brow, he freezes them, then melts them to the ground with a fire spell. He replys- "Nope, fine over here!"


I see a white blood assassin runnig towards Tolten, then BAM, the white blood's assassin's head head is severed from his shoulders, he falls to his knees, I look up in the trees, only to see Sareadia, master elvish archer, and brave leader of RoHawks. She jumps off from the tree, and says, "I've been watching you guys for a while, ya' know, just in case anything were to head for worse". She climbs a tree as easy as the wind blows and disappears.


Rafael obliterates the remaining white blood assassins with a blast of dark energy from his finger.



"We all turn around". To our suprise we see TGAssassin, The Guard's personal assassin, and Shendo's younger brother. He's killed hundreds of men, and can kill a man with a stick if he wanted to. He unsheathes his claymore, and asks, "Can I join the battle?" Rafael replys- "We all have a smile on our face, don't we?". We all turn around to see a white blood assassin with his blade through Xachus's head. "I'm guessing your the leader of this ambush, eh?". He replys- "You guessed right, Andrew". He gives me a grin. Rafael looks confused. "Andrew?" I reply- "I'll explain later, right now, lets kill this crazy basterd". "Ok, but you owe me an explanation!", Rafael replys.



"I'll take him!" Says TGAssassin. "NO!" I yell, it's to late.


"He charges him, sticking his claymore through his stomach", The hilt of the blade and the end of the sword fall to the ground, with the middle of the sword disintegrated into his body. He turnes around and stares TG with a half-eye grin. He then flips him as easily as it would be to flip a pebbel, leaving him unconscious. I mutter, "You didn't want to do that".. I turn into a blue fire demon. I leap into his body, burning his insides, he limps. Before he left, he said. "This shall soon all be over!" I have little clue of what he could of ment by that.


"Lets Clean up camp men!"




To be continued...

After cleaning up the blood-spattered camp, I went back to Shendo to continue the conversation.

"Shendo you're sure that someone was standing over me?" Shendo nodded at me.

"Yes I'm quite sure, Rafael."

How did he look like?"

"A formal man, nice suit nicely combed hair and wearing a pair of glasses." Shendo replied without hesitation.

"Johnny... so it wasn't a dream but the spirit had said that he was gonna get a host that couldn't gain access into other people's dreams. Johnny must've taken me away to make sure no one woke me up while he slipped into my mind."

"Yes.." Shendo's tone was oddly calm, he gave a sigh, "Go, Rafael find Johnny, I would go with you but I must prepare the camp to leave but also keep it up and ready just in case Johnny was tricking you."

I nodded at him and my shadow slipped on around me my vision went into a different spectrum. I could see anything more then 10 miles away. I stepped out of the tent, and vanished...

I popped instantly into Johnny's tent.

Good thing he showed me a memory of his tent or I would be searching around all of Zork for this place! I thought.

Everyone inside the tent froze, sadly all of the Red Wizards were inside the tent speaking with Johnny. They looked at me then pounced. I vanished and appeared behind Johnny and took him by the neck.

"Tell them to lay down their weapons Johnny." I seethed.

He smiled, "Lay down your weapons my Red Wizards he's a friends. Though I don't think friends should keep a knife on your neck, yes?"

They lowered their weapons, I lowered the knife,"Hmph, Johnny..." My shadow slipped from around me and returned to where it belonged. They gasped.

"You got my message, yes?" Johnny looked at me right in the eye.

"Yes..." I replied.

"Good." He turned to his Red Wizards,"Prepare the camp were leaving" He seemed to transfer energy into his words. The Red Wizards suddenly collapsed and then a deep black fog seeped out of their mouths. Then the familiar form of spirits came up. Me and Johnny looked at them calmly.

"Yes your master is no longer in me you demons now go back from whence you came!" Johnny yelled, the creatures screamed a horrible high-pitched yell that tore my ears then they vanished...

"Now, Rafael lets head to your camp, shall we?"

I couldn't help but smile.